The European Union's innovation scoreboard ranks Lithuania as a modest innovator, but there is one field in which this Baltic country of 3.2 million people shines, literally: lasers.

Half of all picosecond lasers sold worldwide are produced by Lithuanian companies, while Lithuanian-made femtosecond parametric light amplifiers, used in generating the ultrashort laser pulses, account for as much as 80 % of the world market.

Vilnius University and the Institute of Physics have been carrying out cutting-edge laser research since the 1970s, a decade or so after the first functioning laser was demonstrated. And today their work in the area is continuing apace — especially through collaboration in EU ICT projects.